Chavez looks to inner circle as he fights cancer

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2002 file photo, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, swears in his older brother Adan Chavez as head of National Institute of Land and Agricultural Development at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Chavez's precarious health appears to be prompting him to look into his inner circle for those he thinks are most capable of managing his socialist revolution while he undergoes cancer treatment. Possible candidates include his elder brother, Adan, who is currently governor in Chavez's home state of Barinas. Those standing out also include Chavez's foreign minister, his energy minister and a few trusted military officers, both current and former. Yet if Chavez has his mind set on any particular heir to power, he hasn't yet sent clear signals as to whom it would be. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Solorzano, Miraflores, File)
— AP

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2002 file photo, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, swears in his older brother Adan Chavez as head of National Institute of Land and Agricultural Development at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Chavez's precarious health appears to be prompting him to look into his inner circle for those he thinks are most capable of managing his socialist revolution while he undergoes cancer treatment. Possible candidates include his elder brother, Adan, who is currently governor in Chavez's home state of Barinas. Those standing out also include Chavez's foreign minister, his energy minister and a few trusted military officers, both current and former. Yet if Chavez has his mind set on any particular heir to power, he hasn't yet sent clear signals as to whom it would be. (AP Photo/Juan Carlos Solorzano, Miraflores, File)
/ AP

Two of the most visible and resilient leaders of Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, both visited Chavez in Cuba and were among the select few who welcomed him home at the airport upon his return.

Maduro and Ramirez have remained at their posts longer than any of their counterparts, and both have proven to be capable of rallying the party, though as with all their colleagues, authority flows largely from the trust Chavez places in them as managers and defenders of his interests.

Maduro, who years ago was a bus driver and union leader, often speaks on Chavez's behalf and has been top diplomat since 2006. He previously showed political finesse as National Assembly president.

Chavez has entrusted the state oil company that is Venezuela's cash cow to Ramirez, a mechanical engineer, since shortly after the president's triumphant return to power following a short-lived 2002 coup.

While Chavez was away in Cuba, Jaua, Ramirez and other prominent allies increased their public appearances at rallies, insisting the movement would stay united.

"Of the names mentioned it strikes me that Rafael Ramirez might be in the best position to hold Chavismo together," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. "Still, he is no Chavez. No one is."

Some analysts say few if any of the second-tier civilian Chavista leaders appear to command respect within the military the way the president, a former lieutenant colonel, does.

Several current and former military officers could emerge as power brokers in a transition, even if none now seem to have roles high profile enough to make them possible successors.

Chavez often says he still considers himself a soldier in a larger battle for the country's future. And he places great trust in some of the military allies who joined him in a failed 1992 coup attempt more than eight years before he won the presidency.

They include a former intelligence chief, Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, who was promoted last year to general-in-chief and who is the military's strategic operations commander. Rangel was with Maduro and Adan Chavez when they held one of their first televised meetings with the president in Cuba after his surgery to remove a tumor from his pelvic region.

Rangel says little in public and has a controversial past. Last year, Chavez publicly defended Rangel when he was criticized for saying in a newspaper interview that neither the military nor the public would accept an opposition victory in the 2012 presidential vote.

A 2008 U.S. Treasury Department accused him and two other members of Chavez's inner circle of helping leftist Colombian rebels by supplying arms and aiding drug trafficking operations. Chavez dismissed those accusations as politically motivated.

Chavez's closest allies haven't always lasted in his inner circle.

Another former army officer who joined the 1992 coup attempt, Diosdado Cabello, used to be vice president and was once perceived by many Venezuelans as Chavez's closest confidant. He is still thought to have close ties with part of the military, though his standing with Chavez may have diminished when he lost a 2008 state governor re-election bid to an opposition leader.